ESPERS
by SkyeAedus
Summary: In a world where half of humanity has psychic powers, nothing is simple. This is especially true for Danny Fenton, the son of two anti-esper extremists, who is also one of the strongest espers alive. (AU) (FIXED)
1. Chapter 1

**This is an AU where instead of ghosts, there are espers. Espers are people who can use supernatural abilities, which are usually (and inaccurately) called extrasensory perception, or ESP. Most ghosts are espers, but there are also a few human characters who have abilities as well.**

 **Please enjoy the story!**

* * *

It was a normal day in Amity Park: the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Daniel Fenton was observing. Really, that was one of the few things the boy felt he was truly skilled at, the other being pretending.

Daniel (or, as he preferred, Danny) was observing the argument between his two best friends, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley. Really, they had had the same fight almost every day since they met in third grade. Literally the same fight; neither had used any new points in years.

So as usual, Danny did nothing but watch.

He liked watching. He learned quickly this way and rarely let things slip past his notice. This also meant he had a reputation for being spacey and easily distracted, but that just helped him act.

Danny acted like he was clueless, unintelligent, and wimpy, even among his friends. Sure, best friends are supposed to share all, but Danny had a very important secret.

He was an esper. In other words, he was a person born with supernatural powers.

Actually, espers were fairly common. Almost half of all humans had some sort of ability, but were so weak that his anti-esper extremist parents didn't bat an eye. Danny was special because he was powerful, extremely powerful.

On a scale from 0.1 to 10.0, Danny was currently an 8.3 and growing. He could count the known stronger espers on one hand, and still have fingers left over.

So, if only to avoid a painful demise at his parents' hands, he hid behind the guise of an average teenage boy. Everyone thought the only powers he possessed were changing his eye colors and an oddly heightened resistance to insults. Obviously, the latter was a joke, and everyone thought him harmless.

Danny liked it that way.

So the boy observed, pretended, and _survived..._ which is more than he could say for most people caught in the middle of this argument.

"Tucker, I am telling you, killing a living, feeling creature just for food isn't worth it! Plants can give you all the food and drink you need and still be just fine." Sam tried to explain. The girl was a goth, but could communicate with flora and fauna of all kinds. Naturally, she strived for a better way of living for all.

Tucker, a technopath, scoffed, "Sure, it can give me what I _need,_ but can it give me what I _want?_ For example, I want a nice, juicy double cheeseburger right now. Can your beloved plants give me that, Sam?"

At that, Danny couldn't restrain a light chuckle. This drew the attention of his friends, who blinked in surprise at the unexpected interruption.

"What's up, Danny?"

"Nothing, Sam. It's just that you two are using the same arguments from seven years ago, almost word for word. I bet you didn't even notice!" The raven-haired boy explained with a smothered (and very manly) giggle.

"Really?" The two asked at once, before Tucker continued with a simple, "Huh."

"Yep. And we're here, anyways. You almost walked right past the doors." At this, all three cracked up. Sure, they were early enough that walking past the doors wouldn't cause a problem, but the idea was still funny. How could they miss a building as large as their school? It even had its own front gate!

With an exaggerated flourish, Danny opened the door for his friends. He grinned at Tucker, "Ladies first."

But he didn't catch Tucker's reaction as a cold feeling bubbled up in his chest. He gasped more at the meaning of it than the familiar sensation. As soon as his friends cleared the doorway, he sprinted away, shouting some excuse about a forgotten book over his shoulder.

It wasn't until he reached an empty alleyway that he finally slowed to a stop, carefully scanning the area for people and cameras. Finding none, he called up a wave of freezing cold telekinetic energy, relishing in the charge that spread quickly to every cell in his body. He wasn't sure what the wave itself would look like to anyone else, but he knew what it left behind: a softly glowing teen with pure white hair and luminescent green eyes.

He wasn't wearing the stereotypical spandex of comic book superheroes, thank goodness. Instead, he was clad in black jeans and a sleeveless black shirt. He also had white fingerless gloves, white combat boots (which he was thankful he didn't need to go find - it's nearly impossible), and two loose white belts, more for decoration than anything else. He did use them to hold some of his tools, though. To top it all off, he wore a black hooded cloak, complete with a silver clasp in the shape of a flaming DP.

All in all, he thought he fit his name, that is, the name he gave this side of himself: Phantom.

Danny, now Phantom, sighed as he lifted himself off the ground with the brush of a thought. Really, it was much more difficult to hide his abilities than it was to use them.

"Alright, esper," he muttered, "where are you?" Taking off in the general direction his powers indicated, he soon reached a computer repair shop. With a groan, he realized which rogue esper he would most likely be fighting.

Yes, fighting. One of Danny's powers was to sense irregularities in supernatural energies. Usually this indicated rogue espers, or sometimes espers with little control over their abilities. He figured that he had the unique sense (though it wasn't his sixth) for a reason, and that reason must be to protect his home. To this end, Danny captured rogue espers and helped whoever needed him, powers or no.

Shaking himself bodily from his thoughts, Danny dove intangibly through the shop's front windows. It was a common power, but no less useful.

"Hey Technus! If you're looking for someone to fix your head, there's a psychiatrist's office three blocks from here." He quipped, charging green telekinetic energy around his hands. The technopath, one much stronger than Danny's best friend, turned away from the laptop he was fiddling with to face the young hero.

"No, not at all. I, Technus, the master of all things electronic and beeping, am here on purpose! From this store I can connect to the Internet, and from there I can use my hacking expertise to steal government secrets!" The old man said, not even realizing that he had just exposed his plan to Danny, who simply sighed again.

"Really, dude? I'm gonna be late for school." With that, he blasted his foolish adversary with his green energy, knocking him backwards into a stack of screwdriver kits. It was odd, really, because _who needs that many screwdrivers?_

Technus scrambled to his feet, raising his hands and summoning various electronics to himself. He was attempting to use his favorite technique, building a robotic body to give himself an edge. What he didn't count on, however, was the fact that almost all of the devices were defective or broken in some way. Why else would they be lying around in a repair shop? Exactly.

So the robotic exosuit fell back to pieces almost immediately, prompting a flurry of curses from Technus. Danny grinned to himself as he slipped a pair of anti-esper handcuffs from one of his belts. The cuffs were an invention of his father's, and were easily disguised as thin metal bracelets until activated. Danny always wore a deactivated pair, modified into simple limiters, just in case.

"You know, that offer still stands..." He joked as the older esper panicked. Seeing the glare in the man's grey eyes from behind his dark glasses, he continued, "No? Then I guess it's back to the EZ for you."

Danny clipped the thin cuffs around the struggling Technus' wrists, placing his thumb over the hidden scanner. The cuffs recognized his thumbprint and activated, sending a harsh jolt through the villain's body and restraining his powers just as well as they did his hands.

They also had the (unexpected but pleasant) side effect of knocking the captive out, making it infinitely easier for Danny to transport him to the ESP Zone, a prison designed specifically for rogue espers.

Danny waved a hand and shoved Technus into a temporary dimensional pocket. These acted as temporary holding cells until after school, when he could swing by the Zone. They were also great for hiding in when invisibility wasn't an option... and he liked to use them to hold his textbooks.

At the thought of textbooks, Danny jolted. School! For what felt like the millionth time, the boy wished he had already mastered teleportation.

Two minutes? Oh, well. He could fly fast enough, he hoped.

Muttering his own curses under his breath, Danny took off at high speed as he retrieved his math textbook. He suppressed his powers as he landed in the boy's bathroom, became visible, and strode out as Fenton.

One minute.

Danny ran to his locker and snatched his morning notebooks before slamming it shut. It bounced back open. He growled in frustration as he slammed it again, this time satisfied as it stayed closed.

Ten seconds.

With that done, he sped down the hall to his homeroom, Room 217 with Mr. Lancer. The boy dodged jocks, nerds, and preps, making it through the door just as the bell rang. Wincing, Danny looked up at his homeroom teacher, who was standing in the front of the room. At Mr. Lancer's nod, Danny sighed in relief and slid into his seat between Sam and Tucker.

"Hey, man," Tucker said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice in order to avoid detection, "What took you so long? We couldn't hear what you said as you ran away."

Danny's gaze shot back and forth from Sam to Tucker, watching for their reactions to his excuse. In a level voice, he explained, "Like I told you guys, I forgot a textbook at home. Weren't we supposed to bring it to Math today for group work or whatever?"

Tucker seemed to accept the excuse as he shook his head. Sam, however, raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Oh, yeah, just like you forgot that same book three times last week? We haven't had group work in math for two months, Danny."

Shit.

 _'C'mon, Danny. How can you get out of this?'_ Danny thought, shifting in discomfort as he searched for an excuse. He was saved from an explanation, though, when Mr. Lancer called the students to attention.

* * *

 **Yes, I know that this is an awkward place to stop. The original document for this is a solid 7,000 words, and I decided to split it up into pieces so that I have time to write more after the Christmas Truce.**

 **The first few chapters will be about 90% exposition and 10% plot, but don't worry about it too much. I promise that after the first three chapters or so, I can finally get out of excessive explanations and into the actual plot!**

 **Word Count: 1755**

 **Thank you for reading, and please have a nice day/evening!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the delay! I got swept up with mathematical stress. To make up for it a little bit, this excerpt is a bit longer than the first chapter. Please enjoy!**

* * *

'C'mon, Danny. How can you get out of this?' Danny thought, shifting in discomfort as he searched for an excuse. He was saved from an explanation, though, when Mr. Lancer called the students to attention.

"Class," the overweight teacher said loudly, "I have a few announcements to make. Firstly, I would like to congratulate those of you who attended the Honors Convocation last week. Here's hoping you keep it up for the rest of your high school career."

Polite applause bubbled from the back of the room, where most of the nerds and geeks sat. The majority of the A-Listers and their ilk just scoffed or ignored the teacher altogether.

"Second, and more importantly, there has been a change in the esper education laws in the state of Illinois, as I'm sure some of you are already aware."

Now this caught everyone's attention, even that of the non-espers... Well, given the type of school Casper was, the normals and extremely weak espers formed the vast majority of the population. Even so, everyone's attention was now on Mr. Lancer.

The man cleared his throat, "From today onwards it is required that all espers above a level two on the power scale must wear activated power suppressors at all times when on school property. Failure to comply will mean one day of suspension on the first offense, a week on the second offense, and expulsion on the third. To ensure that all students are following this rule, we are to perform an individual ESP scan on each student. This will take place tomorrow morning and should be finished by the end of the day."

At this last point, most of the class was in uproar. Though many of the publicly known espers were the losers who didn't care for reputation, most of the other students and even a few A-listers either secretly had powers or were friends with someone who did.

"This is an invasion of privacy!"

"Espers have rights too!"

"Do you want to get people killed!?"

Similar outbursts were echoed by the majority of the class. Danny, however, stayed silent in his seat at the very back of the class. Sam and Tucker were both too involved in the chaos to notice, but his eyes were glowing an angry green that destroyed his calm expression.

"Quiet!" Mr. Lancer shouted above the noise, and instantly the teenagers silenced themselves to hear what he had to say. It may have been funny under different circumstances, but no one was laughing.

"Yes, I understand where you are all coming from, but please remember that this is the law. There is nothing I or anyone here can do about it. If it makes you feel any better, though, think about it. It is incredibly unlikely that an esper stronger than a level two will have been able to stay hidden for this long. If they have, then their powers are probably easily controlled or even beneficial. The reveal will most likely only help them." Mr. Lancer paused, looking each irate student in the eye before continuing.

"Additionally, not only is it virtually impossible for our school to have a level five or higher in attendance, statistically, but the identities of espers found will not be revealed. It is still up to you, though a log of the number of individuals found at each power level will be released."

Valerie Grey raised her hand, then spoke without waiting to be called on, "Hey, but what about those suppressors? It'll make it obvious who is and isn't an esper higher than level two! How is that supposed to be fair?"

To everyone's surprise, Mr. Lancer was not the one to answer, "Actually, I can take care of that."

The attention of the entire class was drawn to the back of the room. Even Tucker and Sam were undeniably shocked to see Danny standing there, eyes still blazing neon green from where they sat in an uncharacteristically serious visage. The boy stood with his back straight, arms crossed to give him a look of utter defiance.

"First let me say that I don't agree with this way of doing things at all, but if that's what we gotta do then all we can do is obey the law and suppress people's abilities." Danny stated as he made his way to stand beside his homeroom teacher, who was as surprised as everyone else. The boy turned to face the class again before he continued, "There is a way to follow the law without being forced to reveal yourselves, though. The answer lies in these." The boy held up a hand, pointing to one of his silver bracelets with the other.

Dash Baxter guffawed, drawing gazes away from Danny. He smirked, "What does your stupid girly jewelry have to do with anything, Fenturd?"

To further the class' state of astoundment, Danny smirked right back at the bully, "Everything. See, this 'stupid girly jewelry,' as you so eloquently described it, is really an invention I made. Well, sorta. They're a modified version of my parents' anti-esper handcuffs."

Murmurs began to rise in the small crowd, most people either wondering why he would wear such a thing or growing angry at the idea of anti-esper equipment. Danny ignored them completely, and sure enough they were silenced when he spoke again.

"The originals were basically just tasers in the form of powerfully magnetic cuffs. They were simple, yeah, but they were also powerful, cruel, and effective. They also caused the captive extreme pain when activated, and the esper often ended up unconscious." Danny paused for effect, taking in the horrified faces of his peers. He then removed one cuff and held it up as he let his eyes fade back to blue, "I turned it into something better. The only thing that's really left of the original is the casing and some of the basic internal mechanisms. I created a microdevice that will read the power levels of its wearer and sync with their energy signature, meaning only they can use it properly. It then draws on the esper's energy and stores it, getting rid of the excess when it needs to. In the end, it takes the majority of the user's powers away without hurting them at all, and once the core of the microdevice is full you can just hit 'refresh' on the inner border here-" he pointed out the tiny button, "-to empty it while it's not being worn. It's powered by the energy it takes in from the user, so you don't need to worry about running out of charge or anything.

"What I think is the best part of all this is that while it functions as an almost perfect power limiter for anyone below a level seven, it doubles as an accessory. To prove my point with what Dash said before, none of you even realized this was anything other than a normal silver bracelet. So even though some of you might end up wearing them out of necessity, anyone who wants to can use them as regular jewelry, and I'm pretty sure I can make a watch version for guys too. If enough non-espers start wearing them every day, no one will be able to tell who is actually an esper."

The class openly stared at Danny, who was still standing confidently with a serious expression. Then, suddenly, he relaxed and grinned in his usual lopsided fashion.

"Besides, I'll only charge $10 each because I need some cash to make them, and they're free if you're really an esper. If you have any special requests with how you want yours, just ask and I'll see what I can do."

That snapped everyone out of their daze, and instantly several people began to bombard the boy with questions.

"Since when were you smart enough to do something like this!?"

"Do they come in different colors?"

"Why are you wearing them anyway, if you're so weak?"

"Can I have a pair?"

Mr. Lancer stepped in, standing slightly in front of Danny, who let out a quiet sigh of relief. He wasn't used to these kind of interrogations.

"Alright, alright, settle down. We only have a few short moments before it's time to go to your first period classes. I'm sure that whatever questions you have can be asked after school." The teacher reasoned.

Before anyone else could complain, Danny spoke up again, "I know that most of you don't have my contact info, so that won't work. Honestly I'm glad some of you don't..." He shook his head to get back on track, "Anyway, I'm pretty sure detention is being held in here today, so how about we meet here after dismissal?" Danny looked to Mr. Lancer for approval of his plan.

The man nodded, "That's fine with me. I would like to know more about this as well, so I appreciate the fact that you chose my room."

Danny smiled slightly, "It's no problem. Oh, and guys," He turned his attention to the other students, "Feel free to spread the word. I don't want to need to say that again in all of my classes."

With that, the blue-eyed boy briskly walked to his desk and grabbed his belongings, clipping the limiter back onto his wrist just as the bell rang. Sam and Tucker joined him as he made for their first class, World History with Mr. Ferrara. The two were shooting him odd glances, until he smiled and spoke smugly.

"See, I can do things right when I want to."

Sam sputtered, knowing the comment was directed at her. Sure, she joked about his apparent lack of capabilities, but it was just a joke! She found her voice, "How were we supposed to know you even knew what any of your parents' inventions do, let alone how to make your own?"

Danny shrugged, "I dunno, that was meant as a joke anyways. It's not like I wanted to broadcast it. It became necessary, though, when this law was passed." His eyes flashed green briefly, startling his friends slightly. His voice was low, "Damn them, thinking they can just reveal hiding espers against their will! This should show them..."

Tucker blinked away his surprise and spoke, "Hey, dude, calm down. Your plan is awesome, using a smokescreen. Oh, hey! Can I take a look at those limiters and a pair of your parents' cuffs? I wanna check those babies out!"

Danny chuckled, relaxing again, "sure thing, Tuck. I have some of the cuffs on me, but you'll need to wait until I make a second set of limiters. And remember not to let anyone with powers use them on the cuffs, since it will hurt. A lot. Agony."

Tucker gulped, "No powers. Gotcha."

But Sam cut in again, asking the important questions, "But why do you have anti-esper handcuffs with you? Even better, why are you wearing limiters? There's no reason for it!"

Danny elected to ignore the second question as they walked into history class. He did answer the first, though not with a full truth, "I keep the cuffs with me in case a rogue esper shows up and no one else has the equipment to deal with it. I might not be the one to fight, but not everyone who can is as prepared as Phantom."

Sam accepted the answer but gestured to the thin bands of silver around his own wrists as they took their seats. Danny sighed. It looked like he wouldn't be allowed to get away with anything today.

"I wear limiters for pretty much the same reason. If a friendly or neutrally aligned esper is having trouble with their abilities, I can just lend them the limiters until we can find a better solution. Just because it's not synced to them doesn't mean they're completely ineffective. Besides, these aren't even on. If I were to turn them on while I'm wearing them, they would have almost no effect."

"Because of your power levels?" Tucker inquired.

"Yup." Danny nodded. He was fine with letting them assume he meant his levels were too low, instead of the fact that they were so high that he would still be at least a level six with them on.

Suddenly, a complication he hadn't thought of before presented itself. There was going to be an individual scanning tomorrow. Everyone knew he had limiters, so he probably wouldn't be allowed to use them. Even if he was, the scan would reveal him as being above a level five, which was, as Mr. Lancer had put it, a statistical impossibility.

And Danny wasn't a technopath of any kind, as far as he knew. He couldn't fool the machinery.

But, he remembered, Tucker was. Though it would still mean revealing himself to at least one person, it was better than doing so to everyone. After all, he didn't doubt that his parents would be notified. Danny didn't particularly like the idea of dying at the hands of his mother and father.

"Hey, Tuck," he whispered, getting the other boy's attention. Tucker raised an eyebrow in question until Danny continued, "You and I need to have a very serious talk today. Either before dismissal or after that meeting would be great."

Tucker nodded, "Sure. How about during lunch? Sam has that vegan protest thing so she won't be there today."

Danny smiled at his friend, "That should be fine, tha-"

"Daniel, and uh, what's your first name Mr. Foley?" Mr. Pette called out. The man had a ton of life experience, but that didn't mean he was good with names. In fact, that might be why he wasn't, now that Danny thought about it.

"Tucker, sir."

"Well then, Tucker, do you and Daniel have something to share with the class?"

Danny shook his head, "No, sir. Sorry about that, I was just asking Tucker if we could talk about something later. Actually, it was about that new esper education law. We were planning to research and see if people are returning to old laws or if this is completely new." The lie worked like a charm. The elderly teacher's face brightened, and he straightened slightly.

"Oh? In that case, I can give you a hand. Actually, there was a similar but less reasonable law in effect until 67 years ago, making it so no esper of any level could even attend school. Of course, they didn't have any reliable scanning equipment back then, so it became something of a witch hunt. Nowhere near as violent as Salem, naturally, but same principle."

Danny slipped out his notebook and jotted things down as Mr. Ferrara enthusiastically ranted. Hey, if he was going to be given this kind of information, he might as well know it later.

* * *

 **Okay, I know Danny is sort of OOC here, but I think that the reasoning helps a bit.**

 **Word Count: 2466**

 **Please tell me what you think so far, and feel free to send me your opinions on what will happen next! Other than that, thanks for reading and have a nice day/evening!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**This was completely not supposed to happen. I was supposed to be sleeping. Please don't expect two chapters in two/three days to happen ever again.**

 **WARNINGS: One or two cuss words, info-dumping, Danny seems OOC because he panics, Danny seems OP because he canonically is tbh.**

* * *

"Hey, Danny!"

The teen looked up from his lunch to see Tucker walking towards him, a tray of school's so-called 'food' in his hands. Danny grinned and gave a small wave.

"Hi, Tuck. What took you so long?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Tucker sat down across from Danny, to make conversation less awkward. Digging into his grayish so-called meat product, he spoke with a full mouth, "Shorry, shumbuty wush ashkin me if-"

"Tucker. I have no idea what you're saying." Danny said in a flat tone.

Tucker swallowed, "Right, sorry. Anyway, I said that someone wanted me to confirm the whole limiter rumor. Word really gets around!"

"I've noticed. People have been staring at me since the beginning of second period." Danny pointed out, prompting Tucker to look around at the other tables. Several people quickly turned away.

"Creepy."

"Yup."

The two fell into a slightly uncomfortable silence, hyper-aware of the eyes returning their table. After a beat, Tucker drew in a breath and spoke with forced cheer, "So, you said you wanted to talk. Why just me?"

"Yeah. I originally didn't want to tell anyone at all, but given recent events I think it's better to have to tell you than to let everyone find out. Actually, I'm pretty much okay with anything as long as my parents and other adults don't know, but all of the other students knowing would still be... um, problematic at the very least." Danny explained, voice quiet and gaze flitting between his hands and Tucker's face. His friend was taken aback by the second bout of distinctly un-Danny-like behavior that day.

"Dude, what're you talking about?"

Danny met Tucker's eyes dead on, "First you have to promise me two things. You can't tell anyone, especially my parents, and you won't hate me. Okay?"

The African-American boy blinked in confusion, "Sure, man, but why would I hate you? You're my best bro!"

"Tucker, promise me."

"...Alright, I promise."

Danny let out a long breath to steady himself, tensing visibly. He looked back down to where his hands were clasped tightly together on the table. The knuckles were white even against his pale skin as he spoke in a wavering voice, "Y-you know how I said that the limiters won't really do much of anything if I turn them on? For me, I mean."

"Yeah, 'cause your power levels are too low. There's no point in repressing something as harmless as changing eye colors anyway, right?" Tucker asked, raising an eyebrow at the unexpected subject.

But the nervous teen shook his head, "No, I never said that, not really. I said these don't have much of an affect. You asked if it was because of my power levels, and I said yes. Neither of us specified whether they're too high or too low. My reasons are different from yours." The last sentence barely made it above a whisper.

Tucker's brows furrowed in a strange mix of concern and confusion. He paused as he remembered the earlier conversation, "That's true. Danny, are you... Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

A short, nervous laugh, "If you think I'm suggesting that I haven't figured out how to completely neutralize an esper of my level, then..." He trailed off, knowing that Tucker would see it for the confirmation it was.

He heard the seat across from him creak as Tucker leaned back heavily, letting out an equally heavy breath. The breath soon morphed into a quiet, disbelieving laugh. Finally, Tucker asked, "What's yo-"

"As of my check last night, 8.3 and still rising." Danny interrupted, wanting to get it over with. The silence pressed on him like an anvil on his shoulders, making each breath slow and agonizing.

"Holy shit, man."

At the whispered curse, Danny chanced a look up at his best friend. As he took in the air of wonder and almost dazed surprise, he didn't realize that Tucker could now see how afraid he really was.

"Hey, Danny?" Tucker tried tentatively, "You need me to know this so I can trick the scanners, right?"

Danny nodded, looking away once more, "Yeah, that's all I need. After that, I can help you find a good cover-up for whatever you want to do. I mean, if you get your family to let you change schools it's pretty much on you, but I'll do what I can. That is, unless you just want me to stay away at all costs? I can do that, t-"

"Danny!"

The boy flinched, accidentally meeting Tucker's teal gaze in surprise. The feeling deepened when he saw that Tucker wasn't angry or scared at all. Instead, he seemed to be almost... Amused?

"I'm not going to hate you. I already promised that, remember?" The boy said with a grin.

All at once, Danny felt as if the weight of the world was lifted from his shoulders. His friend didn't hate him! He wasn't going to be left alone!

"Thanks, Tuck." Danny sighed, realizing how tense he had been when his body complained at his relaxing. He let out a snort of laughter.

Tucker blinked, "Uh, what's so funny?"

The blue-eyed boy smiled, "You're the one who just found out that you're best friends with someone who may or may not be the most powerful friendly esper known to man, and I'm somehow the person so scared I could barely move."

Bursting into laughter, Tucker and Danny enjoyed a moment of carefree fun before the technopath realized what was said. He froze, "Whoa, wait. Really?"

Danny tilted his head slightly in question.

"You mean you're the most powerful esper that doesn't want to kill us all?"

The boy shrugged, "I dunno, probably? The only espers I know of that are stronger than me - and that's not many - are out to either rule the world or commit mass murder. The strongest recorded friendly esper is a 6.5, and all he has are ice powers and intangibility. All known neutrals are level five and below on the scale. There are beings that are more powerful, but as far as I know there are none among the non-evil espers. So yeah, I'm definitely the most powerful in the nation at least, unless you count criminals."

Tucker let out a whistle and whipped out his PDA. He fiddled with it for a long moment, then beamed, "That's awesome on so many levels. Can you describe your abilities to me?"

"Tuck."

"Hey!" He defended, "I might also need this to delete information from the scanner files. It's not just for fun. Besides, now that I know, I can be your techie sidekick! That'll work, right?"

After a bit of thought, Danny relented, "Fine, as long as you stay at some designated base and don't get yourself hurt. Deal?"

"Deal!" The two shook hands, "Now, about your powers..."

"Cool, but I'm not gonna describe them unless you actually ask. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory."

Tucker shifted into a more comfortable position in preparation for speedy typing.

"Ready?

"Of course."

"Then I'll just try to list them in order of approximate weakest to strongest. That means... Invisibility, intangibility, and possession are probably all about the same caliber."

Tucker glanced up, "Possession..?"

"Yeah," Danny said with a shaky sigh, "Possession. It works on pretty much every animal I've tried, and any person who doesn't have either a strong will or telepathic abilities. They don't remember anything afterwards, and I can also suggest ideas or do minor memory manipulation to cover that up."

"You hate it, don't you."

The boy smiled and gave a relieved nod, "Yeah. It's great for pranks, sure, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. Anyway, I also have a weak electrical ability. It's really hard to control, so I rarely use it. Actually, that and my acquired weather powers are the main targets for the limiters I wear. On anyone without either of those powers they'd work normally, but the way I synced with them makes them eliminate those two powers completely. They can't do anything else because of that, though, so it only brings me down to somewhere around a six."

Tucker nodded as his thumbs sped over the keys, mumbling slightly. He finished as he questioned, "So what else is there? The others aren't enough to make you a level six esper on their own."

"Um... In no particular order, there's telekinesis, telekinetic energy manipulation, aura sensing, flight, a sonic scream, ice powers, creating dimensional pockets, and I guess limited shapeshifting? I'm still working on teleportation, duplication, telepathy, and mind reading, 'cause I'm pretty sure I can do all of them but I don't really know how. I think that's it, but I can't really be sure. Basically if I've needed something to defeat an enemy, it just kinda pops up. Sometimes if I try to copy someone else's powers, I can actually get them that way, but there are a lot of abilities that I think are unique to me."

Danny didn't realize Tucker was gaping at him until he finished, but when he did he nearly lost himself to a fit of giggles.

"Wha- you- you make it sound as if you're-" if possible, Tucker's eyes grew wider, "No."

Nodding silently, Danny gave in to the laughter, shaking as he tried to muffle it behind a hand.

"You can't mean-"

Another nod, raven hair flopping into eyes shining with amusement.

"You, of all people!? You're-" Tucker was cut off by Danny's free hand over his mouth, the pale boy instantly sobering.

"Shh!" He hissed, almost literally, "Remember where we are. But yeah, that's me." He lowered his voice even further, "I'm Phantom." His hand dropped away from his friend's mouth.

Tucker took a calming breath, "My best friend is a literal superhero."

Said superhero shrugged. "I just do what I can." He said with a genuine smile.

The two then discussed it for the small remainder of the lunch break, Danny telling stories and Tucker frantically taking notes.

* * *

Much to Danny's disappointment, the comfortable and carefree attitude only lasted a short while. Any remnants were utterly shattered when English class ended and Mr. Lancer asked to speak with him.

"Is something wrong? I thought you said it was fine for the meeting to be held in here."

The teacher frowned slightly, "Yes, well, that was before I discovered that the majority of the school was to be in attendance. The other teachers and I have decided to relocate to the auditorium. Can you work with that?"

"I guess so? It probably just means more questions. Lucky me, it's interrogation day."

"I suppose it is."

Without another word, Danny waved and casually strolled to his destination, leaving his teacher to redirect the other students.

Along the way, he thought over the kind of information he would be asked to divulge, and how much he would actually need to tell. Unfortunately, it seemed as if hundreds of people would be there. The kinds of questions that many people could cook up was unpredictable to him.

All too soon, the time was upon him. He took to the middle of the stage. Nervous, Danny almost froze up, but relaxed when he saw his two best friends waving at him from near the front. Smiling back at them, he took a deep, shaky breath and began to speak.

* * *

 **Yeah it'll definitely be a while before the next chapter now. I'm completely reworking everything after this exact spot because I recently stumbled upon some much better ideas (partially because of some of you who reviewed, thank you so very much!).**

 **Firstly, Danny seems really overpowered here, but in all honesty that's partially because of wording and the fact that I'm not easing through the process of him learning all of those powers one-by-one. Many of his enemies have similarly adjusted power sets, too, so while he's completely devastating compared to a normal human, most of his foes are still potentially dangerous to him anyway.**

 **To respond to a guest who used the name ToastyMcToaster: You've got some idea of where I'm going with this, but the sort of really powerful beings that you're thinking of are... something else, let's put it that way. For espers, they might be considered overkill even compared to someone like Danny, but there are other ways to look at it that will be talked about in later chapters. On the topic of Danny's powers, it'll be explained soon!**

 **Anyway, thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed so far, and I look forward to seeing more of your thoughts and ideas!**

 **Word Count: 1901**

 **Thanks for reading, and please have a nice day/evening!**


	4. Chapter 4

**I can't even express how sorry I am for how long this took. Life got really hectic for the last few months, and I only recently managed to sit down and actually write this. It doesn't help that this chapter, despite being one i was looking forward to, was fighting me the whole way. In any case, I'm very sorry and I hope it doesn't happen again.**

 **Please enjoy the chapter where Things begin to Happen.**

 **Warnings: I can't think of any? Danny ist nur sein Danny, and some jerks show up.**

* * *

The presentation took far longer than Danny originally intended, and not much was actually said that he hadn't already been over. In fact, other than a little more dodging of personal questions, the only significant difference was Danny's request that his parents were left out of the situation. A few people had asked him about that, but were appeased when he blank-facedly reminded them exactly what his parents thought of espers.

Despite that, he had sort of expected his parents to find out by the time he got home. As he often was when he followed the ways of Murphy, he turned out to be correct. As soon as he stepped through the front door, his father's bulky arm landed around his shoulders.

"Danny-boy, why didn't you tell us you were inventing ways to destroy espers?" Jack bellowed, beaming brightly, "I can see it now: you, your mother, and I! Side by side, eradicating the disease that plagues humanity! Maybe we can even convince Jazzerincess to join us, and make it a family thing."

Danny watched his dad warily as Jack waved his free hand through the air as if he was expecting a visual transition to some daydream world in which that was already happening. With a weak smile, he tried to correct the statement, "Actually, I don't think blindly killing people for something like having powers is a good idea. The limiters - who told you? - just restrict an esper's powers without hurting them."

Pausing and glancing at his son in confusion, Jack made a confused face and was about to speak when Maddie entered from the kitchen. She had evidently heard Danny's statement, but perhaps misunderstood it, judging by the look on her face.

Danny braced himself for another lecture on the _'inherent evils of psychic abilities and their holders'_ , his eyes closed so he wouldn't need to her in the eye.

"That's a good idea, Danny!"

 _'Wait, what?'_

Danny looked up at his smiling mother, who stood with her hands on her Hazmat-covered hips in a proud stance. He grinned back tentatively. "It is?"

"Of course it is, sweetie!" Maddie reaffirmed, clapping her hands in joy, "After all, we do need to preserve the subjects as completely as possible so that we can study them and learn how to stop them from being born in the first place! You're such a smart cookie."

Jack perked up at that. "Cookie?"

Maddie laughed and went back into the kitchen, with her husband not far behind. Their youngest child stood, shell-shocked, in the front hall. He was honestly surprised at how smoothly that went over, as well as how little of his time it took.

Well, he wasn't going to complain about that.

With very little hesitation, the esper fled up the stairs to his bedroom. It was with no guilt whatsoever that he locked the door behind him. He didn't want or need any distractions from his meager homework time.

Even with the extra precaution, Danny only finished half of his English assignment before he felt the familiar cold in his chest, radiating from his power core. With a sigh, he stood and phased through the wall into the relentless evening.

* * *

The next morning, Danny trudged into the school with trepidation. He, like every student in the school, knew that today would start with the individual scanning.

Danny knew there was no way he could be more prepared for this. He had Tucker ready to interfere with the machine. He had active limiters on his ankles, hidden by his jeans. He had inactive, nonfunctional limiters around his wrists in plain sight as a fake-out, so they wouldn't suspect he had more. He had even been sure to use up a little extra energy in his late night battles, and had all but guaranteed that his parents were too busy in the lab to show up at the school.

That being said, he was very familiar with Murphy's Law. Even if, somehow, he made it through the scanning without incident, _something_ bad was bound to happen today. He just wasn't sure what.

With a heavy sigh and a shake of his head, the boy stopped at his locker, as usual, and was unsurprised when Tucker showed up soon after.

"Hey, Danny. Whoa, you look tired, are you okay?" The technopath greeted, absently jotting something down on his PDA without typing before he noticed his friend's slightly disheveled appearance. His response from Danny was a light glare.

"It's the same as usual, Tucker. A short guy in a high-tech battlesuit tried to hunt me for a few hours last night, then I still had to do homework." Danny sighed. After a pause, he spoke again, "I'll admit it, though- most of this is because I'm all stressed out over the screening they're doing today."

"Yeah, figures. You know that I can change the readings without a problem, though, so just relax! I've got this."

Danny's head dropped into his hands. "Tucker, oh my god."

"What?"

"You can't- you can't just say something like that! It's like the slightly less serious version of the phrase _'what could go wrong?'_ and you're asking for trouble." The explanation was given with distinct annoyance that covered up nervousness. The boys started the trek to homeroom.

Tucker blinked at that. "You believe in that kind of thing? Dude, you're from a family of scientists, shouldn't you be more… I dunno, scientific?"

"Tucker," Danny said with a blank face, "I'm a kid with superpowers. That we don't understand the origin of. And there's no explanation as to how the human body can handle them. Scientific? Please. Jinxing makes about as much sense as everything else."

"...Point taken."

The two strode in silence for the remainder of the admittedly short walk, and upon entering the classroom Danny cringed. Several people had turned to look at him as soon as he walked in, one of those people being Mr. Lancer himself. The overweight teacher smiled upon seeing that his whole class was on time for once.

"Hello, Daniel, Tucker. I'm glad you were able to join us on time this morning." Lancer commented, prompting an embarrassed response from Danny as the boy took a seat.

"Heh, yeah," Danny agreed, rubbing the back of his neck in vague discomfort, "I figured that today was too important to miss any of, so I sacrificed a little sleep to make sure I could get here earlier than usual."

Lancer nodded his assent, but then blinked. "Daniel, I'm afraid you can't be wearing a device that could interfere with the readings today. I'll hold onto your limiters until the scanning is over, and you'll get them back immediately afterwards."

"What? But they're not even activated…" Danny protested, if only to remain convincing.

"Even so, they could be turned on later. It's not that you're untrustworthy-" Danny held back a scoff, "-but it wouldn't be fair to the other students if you had access to a... " Lancer glanced at a book on his desk, " _...sweet piece of tech_ that could give you a free pass."

Danny feigned a moment of thought, then sighed. "Alright, sure. As long as I'm allowed to have them back afterwards."

As Danny slipped the silver bands off of his wrists, Lancer nodded once more. "As long as I have them, yes. I can't say the same for the people who will check later, however…"

Danny froze, and the classmates who had been watching in silence began to murmur in nervousness and confusion at the teacher's words, everyone ignoring the warning bell. "Um, Mr. Lancer, what do you mean?"

"In short, if you're caught with a limiter anywhere on your person when _they_ check, you probably won't be getting it back. For that matter, if anyone else has a limiting device, please hand it to me now."

For a long moment, no one moved. Then Danny placed the non-functional limiters on his desk and ever-so-slowly reached down and pulled up the bottom of his pants legs, revealing the working pair. People began to whisper louder, most wondering why he had a second hidden pair on in the first place.

With hesitation, Danny shut the limiters off, unclipped them, and placed them on his desk with the other pair. He couldn't let his only working limiters be destroyed, or worse, confiscated and tampered with by the government. Besides, he still had Tucker to cover up the real results of the test later, so it wouldn't matter too much.

At least, that was the case as long as this was the only bad thing to happen today.

Danny handed the limiters over to his blank-faced teacher, then made a show of turning out his pockets. "Nope, nothing but a few coins and some lint. I think I'm in the clear now."

With that, he settled into his chair and pretended not to notice the eyes on him, instead masking his observations under the guise of glancing at his friends. After a short but stifling silence, he cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.

"Mr. Lancer, shouldn't we be heading towards, uh… wherever this scanning is supposed to be?"

The man blinked once, twice, thrice. Only then did he snap back into awareness and start moving. "Er, yes! We need to head down to the gymnasium. The machine has been set up already, so we can start as soon as we get there. Before we go, I am obligated to explain how this is… _going to go down._ You will enter a curtained-off area, then stand upon the designated spot and relax as you are scanned. The machine will beep when you are done. It will calculate your power level, if you have one, by factoring together your base energy output and the estimated diameter of your power core."

For the second time in ten minutes, Danny froze.

"The exact number will be put into the list for later evaluation, but the only thing that anyone else will know is whether or not you are above a level two. Those of you who are will be marked with a red stamp on your left hand, and then you will be put on an official list until you get a limiter and can be left alone about it. After the scanning is over, students are to wait in the cafeteria for more instructions."

"Oh, shit…" Danny mumbled, catching the attention of both of his friends. "Ohhhhh hell."

Tucker made a worried face and reached towards Danny in an attempt to comfort him, but Sam got there first. "Danny, are you okay? You don't have anything to worry about, you're not even a level one!"

"The power core, I never thought…" Danny continued, as if he hadn't even heard her. He didn't notice Tucker's physical attempt to help either, but he did react to his words.

"Dude, it's alright. I'm here, remember? I've got this."

"C-can you doctor a really specific photo very quickly without any idea of what the real thing would look like?"

"...shit."

Sam tried to speak up and ask what her two best friends were talking about, but Danny and Tucker abruptly stood and followed their homeroom teacher out the door before she could say a thing. The girl let out an angry huff of breath, clenching her fists before she followed them.

The short walk to the gymnasium was tense and quiet, as nearly everyone knew of someone that would be potentially revealed in less than an hour. Unfortunately, it became obvious when the class entered the gym that they were going to have even less time before the inevitable. Their class was the first to arrive.

With nary a word spoken by any student or teacher, the words of the white-suited government employee were heard clearly by all. "Good morning, students of Casper High School. Identify your homeroom number."

"2B." Lancer responded curtly, displaying his open dislike of the man. It didn't seem to trouble the agent, who just smiled in a way that made Danny uncomfortable.

"Single file, one at a time."

Danny found himself near the front of the line, with Mikey, Sam, and a few kids he doesn't know well standing in front of him. Tucker was about half of the way back, and when Danny glanced back at him, the other boy gave him a serious nod.

The wait was agonizing, even with the distraction of being checked for limiters and interference generators. Each person probably only took two or three minutes, but as the tense knot in his gut grew tighter, the seconds seemed to stretch unnaturally. By the time he was the next up, he was starting to consider that there might be some sort of illusionist messing with him, until, finally-

"Next."

It was his turn.

Taking in a large gulp of air in a vain effort to calm his pounding heart, Danny stepped forward and behind the hastily placed curtains. He noted that they were heavy, possibly designed to deafen the sounds from the machine, which was innocently humming away in the middle of the curtained-off area.

Heart thundering in his ears, Danny stepped into the spot under the scanner, a large metal object, and waited, his hopes resting in Tucker. If his friend was successful, then maybe, just maybe, he could pretend that he was a mostly normal kid. Maybe he could avoid the inevitable fallout that would come from the school knowing he was powerful.

Maybe he could avoid his parents' hatred, if he just got a clean result-

A low tone sounded. The humming stopped. Hesitantly, Danny opened his eyes and looked at the machine, and his eyes rested on the readout screen.

8.3. Tucker had failed.

As he stared at the flashing crimson number, he tried to ignore the crushing sensation of withering hopes. He stumbled out the other side of the curtained area, turning his attention to the agent waiting to stamp his hand.

"You've been confirmed as a potential threat. Hand, now."

The harsh tone snapped Danny back into reality. He couldn't see the agent's eyes, but the deep frown and rough grip on his thin wrist conveyed a type of hatred he had only ever seen in his parents. The stamp was pressed uncomfortably to the back of his hand before Danny was all but shoved towards the gymnasium doors.

Brow furrowed in worry and thought, Danny rubbed absently at his hand as he stepped into the cafeteria, where the rest of the students were to gather after the scanning. His thoughts were focused on the agent and his own future. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

He was so deep in thought that he didn't register the stomping of heavy shoes as soon as he sat down in the lunchroom. In fact, he didn't notice much of anything until-

 ** _"DANIEL JAMES FENTON!"_**

"Oh, jeez."

* * *

 **Word Count: 2488**

 **There's the chapter I accidentally made you wait several months for... I hope it was slightly worth the wait? Jeez, I just want to get to the part where we reveal that (Spoiler). That's gonna be fun.**

 **In any case, thanks for reading and have a nice day/evening!**


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